Gasoline stocks in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub dropped in the week to Thursday by over 10% to their lowest since late May at 942,000 tonnes, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.

The drop was a result of strong exports to the United States and West Africa, Lars van Wageningen of Insights Global said.

US gasoline stocks fell last week by 2.4 million barrels, according to EIA data, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.5 million-barrel drop.

Nearly 300,000 tonnes of gasoline have been booked so far to ship out of Europe in September, with about 200,000 tonnes booked on the transatlantic route, Refinitiv shipping data shows.

August loadings reached about 980,000 tonnes, down from 1.34 million tonnes in July, Refinitiv data shows.

The trading arm of Nigeria's state oil firm is leaving London to set up in Dubai to be closer to the Asian market which is fast becoming the main buyer of the west African country's crude, four oil industry sources said.